Qinghua Zhu

The moderating effects of institutional pressures on emergent green supply chain practices and performance

While building their reputation as a major manufacturing prowess, Chinese industry has experienced increasing ecological pressures from a variety of institutional players including market, governmental, and competitive sources. In response to these pressures some organizations initiate emergent green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. A moderated hierarchical regression analysis of data provided by 341 Chinese manufacturer respondents was completed to examine the relationships between GSCM practice, environmental and economic performance, incorporating three moderating factors market, regulatory, and competitive institutional pressures. The results reveal that: (1) Chinese manufacturers have experienced increasing environmental pressure to implement GSCM practices; (2) the existence of market (normative) and regulatory (coercive) pressures influences organizations to have improved environmental performance, especially when these pressures cause adoption of eco-design and green purchasing practices; (3) manufacturers facing higher regulatory pressures tend to implement green purchasing and investment recovery; (4) competitive (mimetic) pressure existence significantly improves the economic benefits from adoption of a number of GSCM practices with no deleterious influences on environmental performance; (5) none of the institutional pressures contribute to or lessen possible “win-win” situations for organizations. Implications for operations strategists and organizational sustainability planners from these relationships are also discussed.

Examining the effects of green supply chain management practices and their mediations on performance improvements

Environmental pressures have caused green supply chain management (GSCM) to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for manufacturing enterprises. For manufacturers to fully realise the performance potentials of GSCM, they need to integrate internal GSCM practices emphasising functional coordination with external GSCM practices such as cooperation with suppliers and customers in the implementation. Using coordination theory, this article examines three models used to evaluate the mediation relationships between the external and internal practices of GSCM with respect to environmental, economic, and operational performance. We posit that the strategic stance of manufacturing enterprises in improving their overall performance and competitive position requires a joint coordination of internal and external GSCM practices. Survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturing enterprises are used to validate our arguments by testing the mediation effects of two categories of GSCM practices. Our empirical results show support for the mediation effects, which indicates the importance for manufacturers to coordinate between the internal and external aspects of implementing GSCM practices to reap the performance benefits. Coordinating internal and external GSCM practices to seek performance improvements is an important aspect of the manufacturing operations strategy. The dynamics of implementing GSCM practices and the performance contingencies are worthwhile topics to pursue in future research.

Green supply chain management in leading manufacturers: Case studies in Japanese large companies

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce environmental, green supply chain management (GSCM), experiences of large Japanese manufacturers.Design/methodology/approach – Using an investigation of nine large Japanese manufacturers, this paper examines GSCM implementation as well as their performance improvement and drivers among these manufacturers.Findings – A comparative analysis shows that Japanese large manufacturers implement one key GSCM practice, internal environmental management, much more actively and effectively than Chinese manufacturers. The sample of Japanese manufacturers implement four other GSCM practices – green purchasing, customer cooperation with environmental considerations, eco‐design and investment recovery – at similar levels when compared to Chinese manufacturers. Even at the initial stage of GSCM implementation, large Japanese companies have made significant improvements for environmental and financial performance but not for operational performance.Research limitations/implications –...

A portfolio‐based analysis for green supplier management using the analytical network process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a methodology to evaluate suppliers using portfolio analysis based on the analytical network process (ANP) and environmental factors.Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a three‐step process, first by evaluating influence/power and performance scores of suppliers using ANP. They include environmental dimensions in this analysis, then map these suppliers onto a portfolio grid. Recommendations are also made on how to manage suppliers depending on what part of the portfolio they appear based on the scores.Findings – The technique is useful and versatile. The paper clearly discerns various characteristics of the suppliers and produced recommendations on supplier management for an exemplary case scenario.Research limitations/implications – The technique was applied for an illustrative example. Validation and application in a real world setting is required. There are many additional opportunities to further integrate other modelin...

Evaluating green supplier development programs with a grey-analytical network process-based methodology

Under circumstances of increasing environmental pressures from markets and regulators, focal companies in supply chains have recognized the importance of greening their supply chain through green supplier development programs. Various studies have started to explore the inter-relationships between green supply chain management and supplier performance. Much of this performance can be achieved only with suppliers’ involvement in green supplier development programs. But, the literature focusing on green supplier development programs and supplier involvement propensity is very limited. In addition, formal tools and models for focal companies to evaluate these inter-relationships, especially considering propensity of suppliers’ involvement, are even rarer. To help address this gap in the literature, we introduce a grey analytical network process-based (grey ANP-based) model to identify green supplier development programs that will effectively improve suppliers’ performance. We further comprehensively evaluate green supplier development programs with explicit consideration of suppliers’ involvement propensity levels. A real world example is introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. We end with a discussion of managerial implications and present some directions for further research.

Circular economy practices among Chinese manufacturers varying in environmental-oriented supply chain cooperation and the performance implications

The rapidly growing industrial activities in emerging economies such as China have been causing resource depletion and pollution problems. This reality requires China to adopt an integrated management approach to resolve the conflict between industrial development and environmental protection, and the concept of circular economy (CE) serves this purpose. In this paper, we examine if different types of manufacturing enterprises on environmental-oriented supply chain cooperation (ESCC) exist. We also determine if the Chinese manufacturer types varying in ESCC differ in their implementation of the CE practices towards achieving the CE-targeted goals on improving both environmental and economic performance. Our cluster analytic results with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) among the four identified types of Chinese manufacturers varying in environmental-oriented supply chain cooperation highlight the importance to intensify the cooperation with upstream and downstream supply chain partners for a CE initiative to succeed.

Environmental Supply Chain Cooperation and Its Effect on the Circular Economy Practice‐Performance Relationship Among Chinese Manufacturers

Summary Due to resource scarcity and environmental degradation, a new development concept emphasizing environmental concerns, called the circular economy (CE), has been enacted in legislation in China. This environmental management concept can be implemented at three levels, namely, region, industrial zone, and individual enterprise, with the objective of boosting economic development while lessening environmental and resource challenges. Environmental supply chain cooperation (ESCC), an approach that utilizes customer and supplier cooperation in environmental management, has been initiated among Chinese enterprises. Using survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturers, we examine the role of ESCC practices in influencing the relationship between implementing CE practices and the achievement of performance outcomes by testing the moderation and mediation effects of ESCC practices on the CE practice-performance relationship through hierarchical regression analysis. Our data analyses indicate that ESCC practices are useful by moderation and, in some cases, essential by mediation, for Chinese manufacturers seeking to realize the performance targets desired in CE practices. The results highlight the need for Chinese manufacturers to improve supply chain coordination in their implementation of CE. On the policy side, our research findings suggest that ESCC practices are beneficial and, in some cases, necessary for the development of CE in China.

Motivating green public procurement in China: An individual level perspective

Green public procurement (GPP) practices have been recognized as an effective policy tool for sustainable production and consumption. However, GPP practices adoption, especially in developing countries, is still an issue. Seeking to help understand these adoption issues, we develop a conceptual model which hypothesizes moderation effects of GPP knowledge on the relationships between GPP drivers and practices. Using primary data collected from 193 Chinese government officials, we find that regulations, rewards & incentive gains, and stakeholders exert pressure to motivate adoption of GPP practices. Knowledge of GPP regulations, responsibilities and experiences in developed countries is found to be limited. The study also found that voluntary regulations may actually be demotivating GPP practices. This study contributes to further theoretical and practical understanding of GPP practices. The findings can be helpful for policy makers, especially those in developing countries, to establish promotion and diffusion mechanisms for GPP practices as an important sustainable development tool.

Diffusion of selected green supply chain management practices: an assessment of Chinese enterprises

Environmental pollution and resource depletion pressures have caused manufacturers in developing countries such as China to improve environmental performance. In response, thoughtful and innovative enterprises have implemented emergent environmental management practices including elements of green supply chain management (GSCM). Diffusion of these practices to enterprises occurs from internal and external influences. Given that GSCM practices can be viewed as management innovations, this article applies the seminal Bass model to analyse GSCM practices diffusion. Specifically, the Bass model for diffusion is used to evaluate data for ISO 14001 certification and eco-labelling practices in China. In this investigation, we evaluate the relative roles of innovation and imitation drivers for diffusion of these GSCM practices. We find that even though innovation is not insignificant, imitation plays a much larger role for these specific GSCM practices diffusions amongst Chinese enterprises. Managerial and policy implications of these and other findings are also discussed.

Green supply chain management in China

Globalization results in both pressure and drivers for Chinese enterprise to improve their environmental performance. As a developing country, China has to balance economic and environmental performance. Green supply chain management (GSCM) is emerging to be an important approach for Chinese enterprises to improve performance, possibly on both these dimensions. Using empirical results from 89 respondents on GSCM practice in Chinese manufacturing enterprises, we examine the relationships between pressures, practice and performance. The results will look at multiple dimensions of GSCM practice and performance, as well as various pressures they face. Discussion of the results will include practical implications for organizations, not only in China, but internationally who face similar pressures and seek to implement similar programs.